Regime forces ‘assault’ the headquarters of the UNPACU and the homes of several activists

Regime forces ‘assault’ the headquarters of the UNPACU and the homes of
several activists
DDC | Santiago de Cuba | 20 de Diciembre de 2016 – 10:08 CET.

Early Sunday regime forces simultaneously “assaulted” the headquarters
of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) in Santiago of Cuba and another
eight houses of activists in that city and Palma Soriano, reported
members of the DIARIO DE CUBA organization.

Several dozen dissidents were apparently arrested, 12 of them in Palma
Soriano and another 10 in Havana. The arrests could total more than 80,
according to former prisoner of conscience José Daniel Ferrer, leader of
the organization, who was among those detained.

“We are assessing the raids, the robberies and the arrests, but the
UNPACU maintains its appeal to take to the streets to demand the freedom
of political prisoners and an end to the brutal repression against civil
society,” Ferrer told the DIARIO DE CUBA moments after being released.
“We continue urging dissidents and the population to stand up to this
infamous tyranny,” he insisted.

The UNPACU had announced that this week it would resume Sunday
demonstrations, and had summoned its activists to the National Sanctuary
of the Virgin of Charity in El Cobre, Santiago de Cuba.

Alexei Martinez, a member of the organization, told DIARIO DE CUBA that
the losses inflicted by the police on Sunday “were serious.”

According to activist Liudmila Cedeño on her Twitter account, the
authorities took laptops, cell phones, CDs and other equipment used by
the dissidents.

Martínez said that, in addition to the UNPACU headquarters, where José
Daniel Ferrer resides, the homes raided included those of Ovidio Martín
Castellanos, Leonardo Pérez Franco and Yeroslandy Calderín Alvarado.

Also attacked was the home of political prisoner Geordanis Muñoz
Guerrero, where his two children were, along with his wife, Yenisey
Jiménez Reina, who was arrested.

Cedeño said that the home of Yriade Hernández, another UNPACU
coordinator, was also stormed.

Ferrer, one of the members of the Group of the 75 who rejected exile as
a condition for release from prison, and who is under a provisional
furlough, said that during his detention he was taken to a Micro 9
police station.

“A lieutenant colonel who did not give his name came to me with the old
threat that my freedom could still be taken away from me, warning me
that if I continued to organize actions that, according to him, spawn
crimes of public disorder, disrespect, attacks and espionage, they were
going to enforce the law,” he said.

He explained that he was also warned of the consequences that comments
about “leaders of the revolution” could entail.

“This has to do with which I have said and published about the deceased
dictator Fidel Castro dictator,” Ferrer said. “The official said that I
was making fun of him, which was serious, constituting a crime
punishable by quite a serious sanction.”

“I always tell them to spare me the threats, and throw me in prison
immediately if that is how it’s going to be,” Ferrer said.

The UNPACU, which regularly carries out surprise actions in the streets,
had dedicated the protest this Sunday to one of its coordinators, Victor
Campa Almenares, a prisoner in the jail in Aguadores who has been on a
hunger strike since the 10th. And also to graffiti artist Danilo
Maldonado (El Sexto) and Eduardo Cardet, national coordinator of the
Christian Liberation Movement, arrested since 26 and 30 November,
respectively.

And to all the prisoners incarcerated “for political reasons,” and to
the Ladies in White, “who, brave and untiring, for more than 13 years
have been on the front lines, struggling for political prisoners,” the
organization announced.

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